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09/08/2024

Top of the Pops: 6th & 13th July 1989

 

Words: Chris Arnsby
06/07/1989

Nicky Campbell: “Hello and welcome to another sizzling edition of Top of the Pops on BBC1 and Radio 1FM. Starting tonight with an absolute fairytale. A dream come true. She's eighteen. She's from Liverpool. She was discovered by Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. Her first record is the highest climber in the chart. Here she is. Sonia.”

[12] SONIA: you'll never stop me from loving you. I have nothing constructive to say about Sonia. I didn't like her in 1989 and I haven't warmed to her since although I'm sure she's a lovely person in real life who stops to stroke cats on the street, etc.

Time and changing social mores have not been kind to this hymn to stalking which sets out its stall with the opening lines: “Even when you're home/You won't pick up your phone/And take my call.” It doesn't get any better from there.




[6] GLADYS KNIGHT: licence to kill. Promo VT.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31

[22] MONIE LOVE: grandpa's party. Sonia got this write up off to a grumpy start and things don't look like they'll take a turn for the better with song two. Grandpa's Party? Surely that is one of the songs from Paul Nicholas' reign of terror as a pop star in 1976? Fortunately not. That was Grandma's Party. This party is for Grandpa and it's considerably more likeable. Monie Love tries a bit of crowd work and gets a reasonably enthusiastic response from an audience anaesthetised by You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You.



[21] KARYN WHITE: superwoman. Promo VT.

BREAKERS:

[30] BETTE MIDLER: wind beneath my wings

[32] DANNY WILSON: second summer of love

[33] DE LA SOUL: say no go
I have no idea what Nicky Campbell thinks he's doing with his “funny” voice while introducing De La Soul.



[2] THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH: song for whoever. This song's got staying power. The Beautiful South are back for their second studio appearance a month after their first (on 08/06/1989, an edition also hosted by Nicky Campbell).

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11

[5] PET SHOP BOYS: it's alright. Another Promo VT.

[18] CHAKA KHAN: ain't nobody. BBC VT. A performance recorded all the way back in the studio session for the 18/05/1989 edition. At the time, Chaka Khan was asked to record two takes of the song, and I speculated the first version might have been rejected because of a moment when a camera operator was more visible than usual while lurking backstage (he's briefly illuminated by one of the stage lights) and also because at the end  Chaka Khan turns away from the crowd and quickly starts walking towards the back of the stage and then turns and bows. These two problems were both fixed for take two, but tonight's performance appears to be take one with a quick fade at the end to remove  Chaka Khan trying to make like a tree and leave.

TOP 10

[1]  SOUL II SOUL featuring CARON WHEELER: back to life. Promo VT.

[26] A GUY CALLED GERALD, voodoo ray. Nicky Campbell is being sent to Scotland week beginning 10/07/1989 and he'd “love to see you there,” in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Helensburgh, or Ayr. Jakki Brambles and Bruno Brookes host Top of the Pops next week.

Performance of the week: Monie Love, Grandpa's Party.

 13/071989

Bruno Brookes: “Oh, what a crowd. Absolutely fabulous. Good evening. Welcome to Europe's number one TV pop show, on air fair as fair [?] This is Top of the Pops. I'm Bruno Brookes and here's Jakki Brambles.”
Jakki Brambles: “Cheers Bruno. Coming up on tonight's show we've got Gloria Estefan, Norman Cook, er, Simply Red, and much more.”
Bruno Brookes: “First of all, a climber of five places to number twenty seven, here comes Danny Wilson”.

 


[27] DANNY WILSON: the second summer of love. BBC Genome lists Jakki Brambles' first Radio 1 appearance on the week beginning Monday 26/06/1989. She seems to be standing in for Rod McKenzie and Sybil Ruscoe on the Thursday and Friday shows of that week.

The first Saturday in July (that's 01/07/1989, Gregorian calendar fans) saw her get this write up in the Radio Times:

Jakki Brambles was sucking a rusk in her pram when Radio 1 took to the air in 1967. Now she's 22 and the station's youngest and newest DJ. As the weekend Early Show's regular presenter she'll get used to seeing the sun rise over Broadcasting House. But this week she'll get an overdose of those early morning rays when she sits in for Adrian John, Monday to Friday 5.00am. Not bad for a humble lass living on the Scottish island of Arran, who became a DJ by accident: 'When I left school at 18, 1 wanted to earn enough money to travel abroad. So I wrote to my local radio station and got a job cleaning the toilets and making the tea. Five days after I started, a DJ walked out and they asked me to go on air. I was terrified, but I did the show even though I was being sick with nerves between links.'

Now here she is a couple of weeks later presenting Top of the Pops, that's a Virginia Creeper-like climb.

[9] BETTE MIDLER: wind beneath my wings. “Thank you for staying in this Thursday to watch your favourite rock show,” says Bruno Brookes as he introduces the Promo VT for the heavy heavy sound of Bette Midler.

[22] DE LA SOUL: say no go. Promo VT. “Real funkyyyyy,” is Bruno Brookes verdict and he then he pulls a face.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31

[18] MICHAEL JACKSON: liberian girl. Promo VT.

[25] WATERFRONT: cry. Alas, I have zero to say about Waterfront but it's nice not to just keep copy/pasting “Promo VT”. It stops my CTRL+V hand cramping.

[30] GLORIA ESTEFAN: don't wanna lose you. Promo VT.



CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11

[31] NORMAN COOK featuring M.C. WILDSKI: blame it on the bassline. Promo VT. (ouch).

[28] KIRSTY MacCOLL: days. Promo VT. (Could we have another studio performance Mr Ciani?)

[29] L.A. MIX featuring JAZZI P: get loose. Promo VT. (I guess not).

Bruno Brookes is getting mutinous about being made to waddle around the studio linking videos. His verdict on  L.A. MIX (featuring JAZZI P) “Hot stuff for a hot day and a hot evening and a very hot studio. All this running around we're doing here, like nobody's business, there's a very good reason for it now, because we've got the best view for the new entry at number thirty three. Here comes Simply Red.”

[33] SIMPLY RED: a new flame. Promo VT. (Bruno Brookes explodes).

TOP 10

[1]  SOUL II SOUL featuring CARON WHEELER: back to life. Promo VT. (My left hand is now a withered claw).

[8] BOBBY BROWN: on our own. Gary Davies next week. Top of the Pops closes with the Promo VT for Bobby Brown's new video.

Vision Mixer Heather Gilder relieves the boredom with a clever transition into the video. The concept for Bobby Brown's video is that he's appearing on billboards across New York, so Heather Gilder shrinks the picture of Brookes and Brambles down and matches it to the billboard in the first shot of the video. Nicely done.

Meanwhile, commentor mumu03 tells me a tale about Bobby Brown. In the week of 26/06/1989, he was in the UK for a concert at Wembly Arena. He appears on Monday's Wogan singing On Our Own (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUJLr9SfPo is where you can see the performance, inaccurately labelled as recorded from Top of the Pops). Then on Friday the Daily Mirror runs a story about Bobby Brown being “forced to flee a record store [HMV on Oxford Street] stormed by thousands of screaming fans yesterday.” The interesting bit is a throwaway line that: “The stormy American star's quick getaway came a day after he was banned from TV's Top of the Pops for reportedly throwing tantrums.”

 


The report runs on Friday. The storming of HMV takes place on Thursday. And that's “the day after,” he's banned from Top of the Pops. Which would be Wednesday 28 June. The archive copy of that Top of the Pops begins with studio footage of Floor Manager Iain McLean apologising: “Looks like we're gonna start in a moment. Got themselves ready. All the technical hitches are out of the way. We can start our show. Sorry about that but bear with us like you have done throughout the rest of the show...”

The question is, as the Daily Mirror reports, was Bobby Brown “banned for reportedly throwing tantrums” because of delays caused by “technical hitches” or was Iain McLean being diplomatic when explaining the cause of the delays to the audience? We may never know. Over to you Bobby... (Bobby Brown: "Its my prerogative, peeps.")

 Bonus master tape bit: It's Transvision Vamp. While the band wait on stage, Floor Manager Iain McLean can be heard berating audience members as he shepherds the audience. It's clearly the far end of the studio session. “Keep looking that way... that's my girl... we're all done... good. Where you goin'? Where you goin'? Where, where you goin'? Where you goin'? Ah, we've got people leaving... boo! [Everyone goes, boo!].” Suddenly the band are cued and launch into a performance of Landslide of Love. They get to the end. It all looks okay. Then after some waiting, they are cued to go again. The tape ends as the audience applaud the second performance.

 Performance of the week: Danny Wilson, The Second Summer Of Love.

 

 

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